Diabetes mellitus is a chronic condition in which a person has elevated blood glucose levels that result from defects in the body's ability to produce and/or use insulin. For people with diabetes, successful management requires monitoring blood glucose changes. Regular testing of blood glucose levels can be an important part of diabetes management as a way to track changes throughout the day. For example, portable handheld medical diagnostic devices are often employed to measure concentrations of biologically significant components of bodily fluids, such as, for example, glucose concentration in blood. To test glucose with a glucose meter, a small sample of blood may be placed on a disposable test strip. A portable handheld glucose meter may include a strip port that receives the disposable test strip. The test strip may be coated with chemicals (glucose oxidase, dehydrogenase, or hexokinase) that combine with glucose in blood allowing it to measure the concentration of glucose in the blood sample. The portable handheld glucose meter then displays the glucose concentration as a number (or glucose measurement value).
Management of diabetes is complex as the level of blood glucose entering the bloodstream is dynamic. Blood glucose levels are sensitive to diet and exercise, but also can be affected by sleep, stress, smoking, travel, illness, menses, and other psychological and lifestyle factors unique to individual patients. Insulin in the bloodstream controls the transport of glucose out of the bloodstream and can also vary over time. The dynamic nature of blood glucose and insulin, and all other factors affecting blood glucose, often require a person with diabetes to forecast blood glucose levels and administer insulin throughout the day. Insulin pumps are one means for administering insulin to persons with diabetes.
More recently, handheld glucose meters and insulin pumps operate cooperatively with each other to manage diabetes care of persons with diabetes. For example, the handheld glucose meter may operate to measure current blood glucose levels of the person and formulate a recommended dosage of insulin as treatment. Such insulin recommendations may be based on previous blood glucose measures stored by the glucose meter as well as previous amounts of insulin administered and stored by the insulin pump. Amounts of insulin administered to the patient may be communicated by the insulin pump to the handheld glucose meter. The handheld glucose meter may in turn issue commands to the insulin pump to deliver insulin. This type of interaction illustrates the need for synchronization of the system clocks maintained by the two handheld medical devices.
This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.